Sunday, December 27, 2009

There have been fresh calls for a fifth Irish bishop to resign following a report which found that Catholic leaders concealed child abuse.

Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan is now the only serving bishop named in the Murphy report who is still in his post.

Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field stepped down on Christmas Eve while two others resigned earlier this month.

Marie Collins, a victim of clerical sex abuse in Dublin, said Bishop Drennan was sending out the wrong message.

"The other four bishops have now realised the harm that it was doing to the church staying in position," she said.

"We need at this point for the good of the church to know that the men at the top who were there during the period of the Murphy report are willing to accept their responsibilities.

"I just think Bishop Drennan is not doing the church or himself any favours by staying where he is.

"It should be all the bishops that were in place."

The Murphy report into abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese found that members of the church hierarchy were often more concerned with the reputation of the church than protecting children.

Bishop Drennan was Auxiliary Bishop in Dublin from 1997 to 2005. After the report was published, he said he was comfortable with the findings as it "says nothing negative about me".

Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field issued a joint statement which was read out at midnight Mass on Thursday.

The pair, who were both auxiliary bishops of Dublin, said they hoped their resignations would help bring peace to the victims of sexual abuse.

Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray resigned earlier this month after the report branded as "inexcusable" his failure to deal effectively with a priest suspected of being a paedophile.

On Wednesday it was revealed that James Moriarty, the Bishop of Kildare, has offered his resignation to Pope Benedict. It is expected to be formally accepted in mid-January.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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On November 29, Swiss voters chose to ban the construction of further Muslim minarets in their country.

The country already has 150 mosques, including four with minarets.

The vote has been denounced around the world.

Paul Estabrooks, minister-at-large for Open Doors USA, does not believe it can be justified.

"They don't use the minarets there as they do traditionally around the world with loudspeakers to call Muslim people to prayer, so there' s not a noise factor," he explained. "I don't think there's a lot of basis for it, when the minarets are not being used as a method of propagating Islamic faith; they're simply part of the architectural structure of their worship centers."

Estabrooks said Christians in the West need to think through more carefully their response to different religions.

"People of other faiths or other religions are not our enemies," he said. "Our enemy is Satan; he's the only one who is ultimately behind the challenges, and the one whom we fight and the one whose tactics we must be aware of... I think that's one of the things that we haven't taken time to study, because we haven't been faced with that so much in past years because of general peacefulness within our own society."

An appeal against the ban has already been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights. In the meantime, the backlash against it is impacting the lives of Christians all over the world. On December 4, a group of three Muslims threatened the priest of the historic Meryem Ana Syriac Orthodox congregation in Diyarbakir, Turkey.

"They basically confronted the priest, Reverend Akbulut, and they told him that unless the bell tower in his church was destroyed, they would kill him," Estabrooks said. "And they were doing this as a reaction to the Switzerland referendum and the banning of new minarets in their country."

The Syriac Orthodox believers trace their history back to the apostle Paul's ministry in Turkey and speak a language closely related to the Aramaic spoken by Jesus. Over the years, the church has survived a great deal of persecution, and it still stands strong today.

"The church there is used as a scapegoat for inflamed local Muslims who want to lash out at European decisions and situations. So [the priest] is very, very used to that," Estabrooks said. "They're very used to the challenges they face, although they constantly ask for prayer when something like this is threatened against them."

Although Turkey's reaction against the minaret ban has been strong, this is the first report in the world of violence threatened over the matter. As news coverage of the challenges to the ban continues, the pressure on Christians will also continue. Estabrooks said the situation demonstrates why Christians in countries that are perceived as "Christian" need to be mindful of how their choices will impact Christians who are the minority in their communities.

"When we make decisions in the Western world, especially related to the Muslim community, it has repercussions on our brothers and sisters around the world," he said.

Christians who face persecution especially need prayer during the Christmas holiday, when they often come under attack.

"This has happened before in Diyarbakir... Christmas day has tended to be a day of outbreak of violence against our brothers and sisters, especially when they're meeting to celebrate the coming of Jesus," Estabrooks said. "I think possibly it's because of the claims that we have that Jesus is the Son of God, and He is the only way to the Father. That challenge irritates a lot of those in opposition, and they tend to choose Christmas Day as a day to bring challenges to them. So we need to pray for their safety and wisdom on Christmas Day as they meet to celebrate the coming of Jesus to the world."+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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The head of the largest Roman Catholic diocese in New England says the collections at Christmas Masses will help pay for housing and health care for 745 retired and sick priests.

Archdiocese of Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley says church resources haven't been able to keep pace with rising costs of health care and housing for ailing and elderly priests.

O'Malley calls on Catholics to give generously. He says the collections are a special Christmas gift to priests who spent their lives officiating at weddings, baptizing children, visiting the sick, presiding over funerals and providing spiritual services.

He says in his Christmas message people who've drifted away from the church are welcome back.

The Boston archdiocese is the spiritual home for more than 1.8 million Catholics, making it the fourth-largest archdiocese in the United States.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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The Christmas Eve attack on Pope Benedict XVI highlighted the headache of providing watertight security for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church without cutting him off completely from his flock.

Italian-Swiss national Susanna Maiolo, 25, stunned pilgrims during the Christmas Eve mass at St. Peter's Basilica by leaping over a security barricade and dragging Pope Benedict, 82, to the floor.

The pontiff quickly recovered and went on to celebrate Mass.

But French Cardinal Paul Poupard, who was with Benedict at the time of the assault, said afterwards the incident was "definitely a threat" to the Pope and that security should have been tighter.

"With hindsight, you would say greater vigilance was needed, so those in charge of security should not let their guard drop even for a second," the cardinal said on RTL radio, though he acknowledged the difficulty of the task.

"You can go over everything with a fine-tooth comb, [but] if someone really wants to do harm, they will do it -- you can never have a 100% guarantee of stopping them," he added.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi played down Thursday's incident, praising Pope Benedict's "great self-control and control of the situation," he said. "It was an assault, but it wasn't dangerous because she wasn't armed."

Mr. Lombardi said the only way to protect the Pope from all risk would be to create a wall between him and the faithful, but that this was "unthinkable."

Pope Benedict has faced down attempted assaults and terrorist threats in the past -- most recently last Christmas when the same woman, Ms. Maiolo, tried to grab him before being restrained by bodyguards.

In June 2007, a 27-year-old German man jumped the security barrier and boarded the popemobile as it passed before a crowd in St. Peter's Square.

The Holy See dramatically reinforced security around the pope after Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk, shot Benedict's predecessor John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in May 1981.

The al-Qaeda extremist network has repeatedly threatened to kill Pope Benedict, accusing him of being anti-Islamic.

Such threats -- against the pontiff and the Catholic Church -- have seen airport-style security introduced in Vatican City in recent years.

The midnight Christmas Mass is already one of the few occasions when members of the public can get close to the Pope.

Enrico Marinelli, a former head of the Vatican police force, said overzealous personal protection would make the pontiff's job more difficult.

"Having full security around the head of the Catholic Church could limit his pastoral activity," he said.

The Vatican rarely releases details on the Pope's security arrangements, but he is understood to have 350 officials responsible for protecting him.

They include 110 members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, 140 Italian police officers and 100 officers from the Vatican's own police service.

St. Peter's Square is now encircled by metal barriers, and pilgrims must pass through security checks and metal detectors before entering the basilica.

Italian police regularly patrol the area, which is monitored by closed-circuit television. At busy times of year, snipers take up positions on surrounding rooftops and sniffer dogs are deployed too.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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The Pope was not injured when Susanna Maiolo, 25, hurled herself at him in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican but an elderly French cardinal standing nearby, Roger Etchegaray, suffered a broken hip.

The woman, who tried to throw herself at Benedict at the same Christmas Eve service one year ago, is now receiving psychiatric treatment and Mr Lombardi said he thought she would be dealt with very leniently by the Vatican.

'No hurt intended'

Father Lombardi said it was not realistic to think the Vatican could ensure 100% security for the Pope and that security guards appeared to have acted as quickly as possible.

"It seems that they intervened at the earliest possible moment in a situation in which zero risk cannot be achieved," he told the Associated Press news agency.

"People want to see him up close and he's pleased to see them closely too. A zero risk doesn't seem realistic in a situation in which there's a direct rapport with the people."

Mr Berlusconi, who is recovering from a violent attack in Milan earlier in the month, spoke to Italian TV after the attack on the Pope.

"We must really fight back against all these manufacturers of lies, extremism and hatred," he said.

It is still unclear what had motivated Ms Maiolo, who holds dual Swiss and Italian nationality.

She told doctors she had not wanted to hurt the pontiff, Italy's La Repubblica newspaper said in a report on its online edition.

The same paper quoted Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa and head of the Italian bishops' conference, as saying: "Nothing serious happened. It was a woman who tried to greet the Holy Father."

However, French Cardinal Paul Poupard, who was with the pontiff at the time of the incident, said it had been "definitely a threat to the Pope".

"With hindsight, you would say greater vigilance was needed, so those in charge of security should not let their guard drop even for a second," he added.

The Pope is protected by a combination of Swiss Guards, Vatican police and Italian police.

The most serious attack on a Pope in modern times was that on Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, who was shot and seriously wounded by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in 1981 as he rode in an open jeep in the Vatican .

Full schedule

Pope Benedict delivered his traditional Christmas message at the Vatican on Friday, appearing undaunted by the earlier incident.

As he emerged on to the balcony overlooking St Peter's Square, some observers said the Pope seemed unsteady on his feet, but he did not waver.

The German-born pontiff made no mention of the previous evening's incident during his Christmas Day message and prayers.

In his sermon to the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, the Pope focused on the needy and praised the work of the Church in places like the Philippines, Korea and Sri Lanka.

Benedict has made it known he intends to carry out in full his schedule of engagements during the remainder of the Christmas and New Year holidays:

• He will appear at his study window overlooking St Peter's square to give his Angelus blessing to pilgrims at midday on Saturday

• After a repeat blessing on Sunday, he will attend a lunch with homeless people at a canteen run by a Catholic community in Trastevere, about 2km from the Vatican

• Next week, he will hold his customary Wednesday general audience inside the Vatican and on Thursday he will take part in a solemn end-of-year religious ceremony inside St Peter's+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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The Feast of St Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, is celebrated the day after Christmas.

“It reminds us . . . that many believers in various parts of the world are suffering because of their faith,” Pope Benedict XVI said during today’s Angelus in St Peter’s Square, all decorated for the Christmas celebrations, with a big crèche and a huge Christmas tree.

The Pope did not mention any country in particular, but yesterday during the Urbi et Orbi blessing he referred to the difficulties Christians face in the Holy Land, Iraq, Sri Lanka, the Korean peninsula, Congo and Latin America.

In Asia, out of 52 countries, at least 32 limit Christians’ mission in some ways. Muslim countries (from the Middle East to Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia) make it hard for people to convert to Christianity; India and Sri Lanka are increasingly pushing for anti-conversion laws; Central Asian nations (except for Kazakhstan) limit religious freedom; the Communist countries (China, Laos Vietnam and North Korea) stifle or even persecute the Church.

As the Pontiff continued his address, he called on every Christian to entrust their persecuted brothers to the protection of St Stephen. “Let us commit ourselves to support them with our prayers and not fail in our Christian vocation, always placing Jesus Christ at the centre of our life, which these days we contemplate in the simplicity and humility of the crèche.”

However, the celebration of St Stephen’s martyrdom does not remind us only of violence, for he, “like his Master, dies forgiving his persecutors. This makes us understand that the entry of the Son of God into the world gives rise to a new civilisation, a civilisation of love that does not surrender to evil and violence, but breaks down barriers between men, making them brothers in the great family of the sons of God.”

In addition, Stephen was one of the first deacons, who, in handing out help to the poor of Jerusalem, became a “servant of the poor”, the Pope said.

In concluding, the Pope noted, “Stephen’s testimony, like that of [other] Christian martyrs, shows to our contemporaries, who are often distracted and disoriented, on whom we should place our trust in order to give meaning to life. The martyr in fact is the one who dies with the certainty that he is loved by God, and who, putting nothing before the love of Christ, knows that he chose the better side. Basing himself fully on the death of Christ, he is aware that he is the fruitful seed of life that can open paths for peace and hope in the world. Today, by presenting us the deacon St Stephen as a model to follow, the Church is also showing us, in welcoming and loving the poor, one of the privileged ways to live the Gospel and credibly bear witness of the coming Kingdom of God to all men.”+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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A spokesman for the Galway Diocese has said that Bishop Martin Drennan will not be resigning.

Fr Sean McHugh said Bishop Drennan felt he had done nothing wrong, and that his situation was different to that of other bishops named in the Murphy report into clerical abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese.

He said Dr Drennan had not been called to give evidence to the Murphy Commission, nor had he been furnished with the part of the report which mentioned him by name.

Survivors of clerical sex abuse have repeated their calls for Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan to resign.

Bishops Eamon Walsh and Raymond Field announced their resignations on Christmas Eve, bringing to four the number of serving bishops who have stepped down since being named in the report.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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A HISTORIC cathedral burned to the ground on Christmas morning -- just hours after a bishop talked about an arson attack on a convent in 1642.

St Mel's Cathedral in Longford and its contents -- including records and precious artefacts -- were destroyed after a fire started in the back of the 19th century building in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Emergency services were called to the cathedral, in the centre of Longford town, at 4.45am -- just hours after Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Colm O'Reilly referred to a previous blaze in his Christmas homily.

A resident on nearby Chapel Street raised the alarm after he noticed flames coming from the building. Fire officers battled to save the 19th century cathedral, pumping water from a canal, but it was left in ruins.

Yesterday, Bishop O'Reilly said it was a "dreadful day" for him personally. "It's the kind of nightmare that you never thought you would ever suffer.

"I suppose the only thing you can compare it to is a big bereavement, a serious bereavement, and I'd say that feeling is shared by Longford people, by the priestly diocese and by lay people -- but particularly of Longford," he added.

Smoke billowed from St Mel's last night as fire officers assessed the damage.

Gardai will look for clues this morning as to the cause of the fire -- once the building is declared safe. Detectives conducted door-to-door inquiries yesterday.

Inspector Joe McLoughlin said it was a "once in a lifetime" occurrence and all resources had been deployed by emergency services.

"The fire brigade and the gardai responded at the same time, but the fire had already taken hold. It started at the back of the cathedral.

"It's early days, but once the chief fire officer hands the scene over to us and it's declared safe, we will be able to examine it," he added.

Joe Flaherty, managing director of the 'Longford Leader' attended the final Mass in St Mel's, at 10pm on Christmas Eve.

"There was a huge crowd there. The Bishop said the Mass but in his homily he made an analogy to the difficult times facing the church. He talked about a convent in Tubberclair (near Athlone, Co Westmeath) and how, during the penal times, the convent had to be evacuated. English soldiers ransacked and burned it and the nuns had to relocate to a convent in Nun's Island."

Homily

Mr Flaherty said it was "very unusual" that Bishop O'Reilly had referred to the burning of the convent, known as Bethlehem, in his homily.

Scores of local people filed past St Mel's yesterday and wept as they saw the extent of the damage to the building, which was constructed in 1840.

"My sister and my father-in-law live very close to it. I got down there at around 7.45am; people were just walking around and not speaking. They're desolate. Longford has lost so much in the past with economic conditions the way they are but the cathedral was always there. It was a beacon.

"I collected my family from the airport. Dara, my granddaughter, it was her first time in Ireland and her mum and dad pointed out the cathedral to her and said 'That's where we got married'. I had planned to bring her to St Mel's to see the crib," she said.

She added that many valuable artefacts were now lost.

"We have no county museum, so we had to store the artefacts at the back of the cathedral. The stone work, the wood, the workmanship, none of that can be replaced.

"As mayor of the county I want to tell everyone, we need to pull together. It will be our phoenix and we have to raise it from the ashes. It sets us apart as a town, it was built in penal times. It's a challenge to us all to rebuild the cathedral."+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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EMBATTLED Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan was last night on the brink of standing down after the resignation of two more prelates named in the Murphy report.

Bishop Drennan spent Christmas Day considering his position after Dublin's only two serving auxiliary bishops, Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field, finally bowed to mounting public pressure.

The departure of the two barrister-bishops comes four weeks after the report into child sexual abuse in the Dublin archdiocese found that it had shielded clergy who criminally abused children from the law.

In a joint statement, released before midnight on Christmas Eve, the bishops said: "We, Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field, have this evening informed Archbishop Diarmuid Martin that we are offering our resignation.

"As we celebrate the feast of Christmas, the birth of our saviour, the prince of peace, it is our hope that our action may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims/survivors of child sexual abuse. We again apologise to them."

The statement added: "Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence."

Bishop Drennan is now the sole prelate named in the damning Murphy report who has yet to offer his resignation.

As he arrived at Galway Cathedral to celebrate Mass yesterday, Bishop Drennan said: "I have nothing to say at the moment. I'm concentrating on preparing Mass."

But the bishop, who last week publicly insisted he would not be standing down, is expected to confirm his own resignation amid pressure from Dr Martin.

Dr Martin last night said he respected the decision of Bishops Walsh and Field.

He said the two prelates were "extremely good bishops" and had done many things in the Dublin archdiocese for which people were grateful. But he said good people had to be accountable.

He refused to get involved in any discussion about the future of Bishop Drennan.

The latest resignations came after the Irish Independent exclusively reported on Thursday that Dr Martin faced down a behind-the-scenes attempt by Bishop Walsh to rally the support of the clergy.

In a confidential letter, written as part of a lobby campaign among Dublin priests, Bishop Walsh -- who was previously tipped as a future archbishop -- repeatedly said he did no wrong and that it would be an injustice for him to step down. But his position became untenable after Dr Martin refused to back his senior assistant.

On Wednesday, the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Jim Moriarty, went a step further after he accepted the principle of collective responsibility for failing to persuade his former boss, Cardinal Desmond Connell, to investigate the criminal history of notorious paedophile priest 'Fr Edmondus' in a secret diocesan file.

Abuse victims yesterday welcomed the latest resignations.

Andrew Madden, who endured shocking abuse at the hands of notorious church abuser Fr Ivan Payne, said it was "an important part of the healing process".

He added: "It is important for me to live in a society where those who have subordinated the welfare of vulnerable children to the betterment of any institution learn that such behaviour is not acceptable."

The Murphy inquiry, based on a sample 46 priests, revealed a catalogue of paedophilia and subsequent cover-ups over three decades -- because the Catholic hierarchy was obsessed with secrecy and granted immunity by gardai.

In his homily at the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin -- shortly before the resignations of his two auxiliary bishops -- Dr Martin said it had been "a painful year" for the Church.

"But the church today may well be a better and safer place than . . . 25 years ago," he added.

"The Church in Dublin is called to conversion and to renewal."+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Leading the great saints who radiate from the Christ-Child is St. Stephen, whose feast is December 26.

First of the martyrs, he was stoned by the Jews because he courageously proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. His name signifies the crowned.

In a day like ours, when hatred of enemies floods the minds of children, the soldier-saint Stephen, who loved his enemies, is an excellent model for them and for us.

On St. Stephen's Day our night prayers at the crib are varied in this fashion from the previous night prayers:

Father: Christ, the New-born, today crowned blessed Stephen.

All: Come, let us adore Him.

Mother: Stephen, full of grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people.

All: Thanks be to God.

Father: You crowned him with glory and honor, O Lord.

All: You have given him rule over the works of Your hands.

Father: Let us pray.

Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that we may imitate him whose memory we celebrate, so as to learn to love even our enemies; because we now solemnize his martyrdom who knew how to pray even for his persecutors to our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth forever. Alleluia.

All: Alleluia.

Prayer to St. Stephen

We give thee thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors to thy Son Jesus Christ, who standeth at thy right hand: where he liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.

Prayer of Saint Stephen Martyr

Loving God, Saint Stephen was one of the first deacons in the Church. The Apostles ordained him with six others because they needed ministers who wouldoversee the needs of the poor and the widowed.

His holiness was so evident that when he preached to his enemies, his face glowed brightly like an angel's.

I ask him to pray for those who have been called to a life of service as ordained deacons. O Lord, help them to be a sign of Your love in their parishes and in the world where they live and work.

Bless them with a vision of their ministry that stirs them to passion and tireless effort.

Stephen's name means "crown," and he was the first disciple of Jesus to receive the martyr's crown.

Stephen was a deacon in the early Christian Church. The apostles had found that they needed helpers to look after the care of the widows and the poor.

So they ordained seven deacons, and Stephen is the most famous of these. God worked many miracles through St. Stephen and he spoke with such wisdom and grace that many of his hearers became followers of Jesus. The enemies of the Church of Jesus were furious to see how successful Stephen's preaching was. At last, they laid a plot for him. They could not answer his wise argument, so they got men to lie about him, saying that he had spoken sinfully against God. St. Stephen faced that great assembly of enemies without fear. In fact, the Holy Bible says that his face looked like the face of an angel.

The saint spoke about Jesus, showing that He is the Savior, God had promised to send. He scolded his enemies for not having believed in Jesus. At that, they rose up in great anger and shouted at him. But Stephen looked up to Heaven and said that he saw the heavens opening and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. His hearers plugged their ears and refused to listen to another word. They dragged St. Stephen outside the city of Jerusalem and stoned him to death. The saint prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Then he fell to his knees and begged God not to punish his enemies for killing him.

After such an expression of love, the holy martyr went to his heavenly reward.St. Stephen's Day in Ireland St. Stephen's Day honours the first Christian martyr, stoned to death shortly after the Crucifixion. St. Stephen's Day is a national holiday in Ireland, but the celebrations have little connection to the Saint.

In Ireland, St. Stephen's Day is the day for "Hunting the Wren" or "Going on the Wren." Originally, groups of small boys would hunt for a wren, and then chase the bird until they either caught it or it died from exhaustion. The dead bird was tied to the top of a pole or holly bush, which was decorated with ribbons or colored paper. Early in the morning of St. Stephen's Day, the wren was carried from house to house by the boys, who wore straw masks or blackened their faces with burnt cork, and dressed in old clothes (often women's dresses.) At each house, the boys sing the Wren Boys' song.

There are many versions and variations of this song, including the following:

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,On St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze,Although he is little, his family is great,I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.My box would speak, if it had but a tongue,

And two or three shillings, would do it not wrong,Sing holly, sing ivy--sing ivy, sing holly,

A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy.And if you draw it of the best,I hope in heaven your soul will rest;But if you draw it of the small,It won't agree with these wren boys at all.

Sometimes those who gave money were given a feather from the wren for good luck.

The money collected by the Wren Boys was used to hold a dance for the whole village.

There are different legends about the origin of this custom. One is that St. Stephen, hiding from his enemies in a bush, was betrayed by a chattering wren. The wren, like St. Stephen, should be hunted down and stoned to death. Another legend holds that during the Viking raids of the 700's, Irish soldiers were betrayed by a wren as they were sneaking up on a Viking camp in the dead of night. A wren began to eat breadcrumbs left on the head of a drum, and the rat-a-tat-tat of its beak woke the drummer, who sounded the alarm and woke the camp, leading to the defeat of the Irish soldiers and the continuing persecution of the wren.

The pursuit and capture of the wren is also related to the pagan custom of sacrificing a sacred symbol at year's end. In contrast to the legends of the wren as betrayer, the wren has also been revered in Ireland as the "king of the birds."

An Irish folktale tells of a contest held among birds to see which could fly the highest and should be accorded this title. The eagle soared higher than any other bird, but lost the contest when a clever wren, who had been hiding on the back of the eagle, flew off the eagle and soared higher in the sky.

The custom of going on the wren fell into disfavor around the turn of the century, and died out completely in most parts of Ireland, but has been revived throughout much of the country. Wrens are no longer killed-- an artificial wren may be used, or a real wren may be carried about in a cage.The "Wren Boys" now include girls, and adults often accompany the young people.

Folk costumes and traditional music and dancing are often part of going on the wren, and the money collected is often used for community or school projects.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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He told people that Christmas teaches us how to live a truly fulfilled existence by being joyfully dependent on one another.

“Relationship is the new thing at Christmas, the new possibility of being related to God as Jesus was and is. But here’s the catch and the challenge. To come into this glorious future is to learn how to be dependent on God,” he will say.

The Archbishop believes that the word ‘dependent’ has negative connotations with pity and concern, as it is generally associated with dependency on drugs or alcohol, or poor people who are reliant on handouts to get by.

“In other words, we think of dependency as something passive and less than free,” he says.

He argued, however, that people need to broaden their point of view to regard dependency in a positive way.

"There is a dependence that is about simply receiving what we need to live; there is a dependence that is about how we learn and grow," he will say.

“And part of our human problem is that we mix this up with passive dependency and, in (quite rightly) trying to avoid passivity we get trapped in the fantasy that we don't need to receive and to learn."

He said to the congregation that being dependent on others is also a state in which we can learn gratitude.

"… to ask from each other, to receive from each other, to depend on the generosity of those who love us and stand alongside us. And that again means a particular care for those who need us most, who need us to secure their place and guarantee that there is nourishment and stability for them,” he will say.

“As we learn how to be gratefully dependent, we learn how to attend to and respond to the dependence of others.

“And perhaps by God's grace we learn how to create a society in which real dependence is celebrated and safeguarded, not regarded with embarrassment or abused by the powerful and greedy."+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

‘Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn….’ And later, this is repeated to the shepherds: ‘You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger’

A manger is where you put the hay in the stable so the cows or other animals can feed; It’s where you put the food or fodder, from which the domestic animals are nourished It is the place where the Infant Jesus was laid…as soon as his homeless mother Mary delivered Him into the world… no room except amongst the animals

Later on, when he was a young man, amongst the respectable people in the synagogue of Capernaum he would declare

‘I am the bread of life..

The one who comes to me will not be hungry,

The one who believes in me will never thirst…

I am the living bread

Which has come down from heaven

Anyone who eats this bread will live forever..’

Many, we are told, found this talk intolerable,. They would not accept it, they left him and accompanied him no more. [John 6]

On the night before he died, Jesus took bread and wine, gave it to his disciples, and said

‘Take and eat: this is my body, given for you

‘Take and drink, this is my blood, poured out for you and for all…’

Bread of life from the first moment of his existence, to the final moment…

Love personified

God incarnate.

He is our Master. He is the one we follow. It is because of him we come out on this cold night. He, his story and his words warm us, give us hope, give us life, in this frosty world, this world of failed and failing human endeavour, this world of sin. Year after year we drink in the story, we eat the bread

We come precisely because we are part of this failing and sinful world and we need a Saviour.

His coming is not as we expect. He still lives amongst the outcasts and the condemned. That’s where we’ll find him.

Not where there is too much respectability, or popularity.

So at a time of great turmoil in the church, when we are angry and shattered by the things done and the things failed to do by our leaders and our shepherds, when the very church is torn apart by terrible sin, and destruction of childhoods and lives, this night brings us face to face with the fundamental fact and truth that is our light and life: Jesus, infant in the manger, speaker in the synagogue, criminal on the cross…

But bread of life for us, blood of eternal salvation, child of Mary and Son of God.

So whatever happens to the deeply sinful structures and the institution, or even to failed leaders and shepherds,

For love’s sake, for the sake of Hope in our times, and light in our darkness,

O come all you faith-full,

O come ye. O come ye, to Bethlehem

Come and behold him,

Born the King of Angels

O come let us adore him,

O come let us adore him

Christ the Lord+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

We, Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field, have this evening informed Archbishop Diarmuid Martin that we are offering our resignation to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, as Auxiliary Bishops to the Archbishop of Dublin.

As we celebrate the Feast of Christmas, the Birth of our Saviour, the Prince of Peace, it is our hope that our action may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims/survivors of child sexual abuse.

We again apologise to them.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence.